The extreme rainfall that hit Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran in April and May this year was made twice as likely by El Niño, a new rapid attribution study shows.
The World Weather Attribution service finds that spring rainfall over the region has become 25% heavier over the past 40 years.
As climate models were unable to reproduce this trend, the authors were unable to assess the impact of rising global temperatures on the event. However, a study author tells Carbon Brief that she “would be extremely surprised if climate change is not at least part of this trend”..
In contrast, the authors were able to identify the influence of the strong El Niño event that has been underway in the Pacific Ocean since the autumn of 2023.
They find that such heavy rainfall would be expected once every 20 years in the absence of El Niño, but this frequency rises to once every 10 years when an event occurs.
Flash flooding
In the spring of 2024, a series of unseasonably early spring storms swept across large parts of central Asia, causing severe flooding which destroyed homes and crops, and killed thousands of people.
In Pakistan, the first spell of intense rainfall began on 12 April. The resulting flooding damaged more than 450 schools and 5,000 houses, and killed more than 100 people. Subsequent periods of heavy rainfall across the country caused further damage to buildings and crops, destroying huge fields of wheat that were ready for harvest.
The flooding “has resulted in significant economic losses for local farmers and communities, compounding the losses from the rain-related incidents”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned.
Afghanistan also suffered a series of deadly floods. After a dry winter, which made the soil less able to absorb rainfall, the country was hit by waves of intense rainfall throughout much of April and May,
About 70 people were killed in April after flash floods destroyed about 2,000 homes, three mosques and four schools. On 10 May, another period of intense rainfall hit the country – especially in the north-east, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and many more missing people. Around 9,100 livestock and 20,800 acres of agricultural land were destroyed.
Five days later, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned that 25 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan had been affected by flooding, adding that “thousands of displaced people have no homes to return to after their houses were swept away”. The organisation also warned:
“This latest disaster is happening within the context of what is already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, where communities are already barely able to cope.”
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that “in a country with a health system already on its knees, some health facilities were rendered non-operational last week by the flooding”.
Similarly, intense rainfall and flooding killed multiple people in Iran. The
Iran International Newsroom blamed “government mismanagement and flawed urban planning” for “exacerbating” the intense rainfall.
The study authors decided to focus on April-May rainfall in a region centred on Afghanistan, bounded by Iran on the west and Pakistan on the east.
The map below shows the difference in April-May total rainfall between 2024 and the 1991-2020 average, where blue indicates that 2024 saw heavier than average rainfall, and red indicates lighter than average rainfall. The region analysed in this study – covering parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran – is outlined in red.
The region’s main winter rainfall season runs from November to early April, meaning that this year’s intense rainfall was unusually early, the study says.
Attribution
The spring flooding over Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran was “incredibly deadly”, according to the. To determine how likely this period of intense rainfall was, the authors analysed a timeseries of observed rainfall data to put the event into its historical context.
The graph below shows April-May rainfall from 1950 to the present day over the study region. The blue and orange lines indicate different datasets.
The observational data shows that April-May rainfall in the region has become, on average, 25% heavier over the past 40 years.
The authors conducted an attribution study to identify the “fingerprint” of climate change on the extreme rainfall trend. They used models to compare the world as it is today – which has already warmed by around 1.2C because of human activity – to a “counterfactual” world without climate change.
However, the climate models used in this analysis did not consistently reproduce the trends shown by observed data.
“We can’t formally attribute it because the models don’t reproduce these trends,” Dr Friederike Otto – senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London and co-author of the study – told Carbon Brief at a press briefing.
However, Otto – who is also a Carbon Brief contributing editor – explained that climate change is known to make individual storms more intense. “So I would be extremely surprised if climate change is not at least part of this trend,” she added.
The authors also investigate the impact of El Niño – a global weather phenomenon that originates in the Pacific Ocean – on rainfall in the region. The world has been experiencing El Niño conditions since around October 2023 and is now showing signs of ending.
Dr Mariam Zachariah, who is also study author from the Grantham Institute, told Carbon Brief that El Niño leads to warmer sea surface temperatures over the western Indian ocean, which are a “known driver” of extreme rainfall over the study region.
Using a series of statistical models, the authors determined that an El Niño during the winter (December-February) often leads to an increase in rainfall over the study period during April and May.
The 2024 spring rainfall over Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran was not “particularly rare” in today’s climate, and could be expected to occur roughly once every 10 years if only El Niño years are considered, the authors find.
Under “neutral” conditions in the Pacific Ocean, similar periods of heavy rainfall are expected roughly once every 20 years, they add.
They conclude that El Niño doubled the likelihood of the extreme rainfall that hit Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran in spring 2024.
(These findings are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. However, the methods used in the analysis have been published in previous attribution studies.)
Vulnerability
Afghanistan ranks fourth on the list of countries most at risk of a crisis, and eighth on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative index of countries most vulnerable and least prepared to adapt to climate change.
However, the country has been absent from COP climate summits since the Taliban took over in 2021. No foreign government has formally recognised Taliban leadership and it does not have a seat at the UN General Assembly.
The Taliban’s takeover has impacted Afghanistan’s access to climate finance. The country’s climate plan estimates it needs $20.6bn over 2021-30. But around 32 large environmental programmes worth more than $800m were suspended when the Taliban took over, including a major rural solar installation project backed by the Green Climate Fund.
Nevertheless, the country is still receiving some climate finance. A recent freedom-of-information request by Carbon Brief shows that the UK government has opted to meet their £11.6bn climate finance target by “redirecting” or “relabelling” existing funds as “climate finance”, while failing to commit new money in sufficient volumes.
This includes reclassifying nearly £500m of aid for war-torn and impoverished countries, including Afghanistan, as “climate finance”.
And, in late April this year, the Taliban initiated its first discussions with the UN, donors and non-governmental organisations about the implications of climate change in Afghanistan, as confirmed by organisers.
However, in the meantime, Afghanistan remains highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
The authors say that many residents of Afghanistan – as well as Pakistan and Iran – are “highly vulnerable” to flash flooding, as many of them live on river basins that are highly vulnerable to flash floods.
Maja Vahlberg – a climate risk consultant from the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and author on the study – told Carbon Brief that “marginalised communities” were among the most severely impacted by the flooding.
The study adds that “displaced populations were particularly impacted, especially as limited essential infrastructure was destroyed and already vulnerable populations were exposed to more waterborne diseases”.
Vahlberg told Carbon Brief that, across the region, there is “limited” data sharing and flood risk management, meaning that flood early warning systems are “significantly less efficient” than they could be.
The study concludes that there are “ample opportunities to improve climate adaptation and resilience”, including “increasing the coverage of early warning systems, and improving flood risk management policy and planning”.
The post Afghanistan’s ‘deadly’ early spring rainfall made twice as likely by El Niño appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Afghanistan’s ‘deadly’ early spring rainfall made twice as likely by El Niño
Climate Change
DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Bonn talks close
‘SIDE-STEPPING AND STALLING’: UN climate talks in Bonn have ended in “gridlock”, according to Climate Home News. The outlet reported on the failure to balance developing countries’ need for climate-adaptation finance with “richer nations’ desire to move forward” on emissions cuts. It added that both topics were subject to “rule 16”, meaning no agreement could be reached and work will be pushed to the COP31 summit in Turkey. Inside Climate News quoted UN climate executive secretary Simon Stiell, who said the talks had seen “side-stepping and stalling”.
JUST TRANSITION: One “glimmer of hope” came from negotiations on achieving a “just transition”, reported Euronews. The news outlet said negotiators “made headway on operationalising the Belém-Antalya mechanism”, intended to support people in the shift to a low-carbon economy. However, Politico concluded that much of the focus in Bonn had “shift[ed] to efforts outside diplomatic talks – raising questions about the future of global climate negotiations”.
‘ATTACKING SCIENCE’: Agence France-Presse reported on the EU, Switzerland and “dozens of developing nations” warning of “attacks on science” by a “small group of fossil-fuels interests” in Bonn. Table Briefings explained that “the 1.5C target is increasingly being challenged” and the role of the UN climate-science panel – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – in an upcoming assessment of global climate progress “remains controversial”. See Carbon Brief’s full write-up of the talks for more detail.
US-Iran deal
PRICE DROP: The US and Iran announced that they have reached an interim agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz, reported Bloomberg. Oil prices have fallen, as the “long-awaited deal” began the process of “eas[ing]” the global energy crisis triggered by the conflict, according to the New York Times. The Associated Press noted that high fuel prices will “likely outlast the Iran war”.
‘OIL GLUT’: The Financial Times reported that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast a “glut of oil” emerging next year, if the peace deal holds. The IEA said this would allow countries to build new strategic reserves, as they “review their energy strategies and policies in response to the crisis”, according to Reuters.
‘NEW ERA’: Agence France-Presse reported that oil and gas companies have “few illusions about a return to normal for the Gulf energy industry after more than three months of blockage”. One analyst told the newswire that the war “showed the oil and gas industry that Hormuz risk is no longer just a geopolitical headline”.
Around the world
- OCEAN MONITOR: The Trump administration is “abandoning its plan” to dismantle a $368m ocean monitoring system key for tracking climate change after a “bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill”, reported the New York Times.
- CORAL HAVEN: The New York Times covered preliminary research, presented at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, suggesting there could be three times as many “coral refugia” – where corals are relatively safe from climate change – than previously thought.
- BAD CREDIT: Down to Earth reported that the first carbon credits issued under the Paris Agreement’s new Article 6.4 mechanism are “facing scrutiny over alleged links to institutions controlled by Myanmar’s military junta”.
- OIL BACKTRACK: Reuters reported that oil-and-gas company Equinor has dropped a renewable-energy target and scaled back clean investments, while another Reuters story noted that Shell is selling off its offshore wind assets.
1.1 billion
The number of children facing “at least three overlapping climate hazards”, according to a new Unicef report covered by Agence France-Presse.
Latest climate research
- Including the “permafrost carbon-climate feedback” in climate models increases the chance of exceeding “tipping elements” – such as the Greenland ice sheets, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or Amazon rainforest – by up to 50% | Environmental Research Letters
- The intensity of influenza outbreaks could decline in temperate regions, but increase in tropical areas over the next century, as the climate warms | PNAS Nexus
- European snow cover has declined by 20% for December and January since the start of the industrial era, revealing an “unprecedented ongoing shrinkage of European winters” | Communications Earth & Environment
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The more than 2m battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 1m “plug-in” hybrids (PHEVs) and 100,000 electric vans on UK roads are already saving drivers a total of around £3bn a year, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. This amounts to savings of more than £1,100 a year in fuel costs for each BEV driver in the UK. The analysis comes amid reports in UK media this week that the government is considering “watering down” its EV sales targets.
Spotlight
Oceans rising at UN climate talks
The state of the world’s oceans is inextricably linked to the changing climate – and many delegates at UN climate talks want to see more focus on this issue, reports Carbon Brief.
Oceans are often described as the world’s “greatest ally” against climate change – absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and most of the heat generated by those emissions.
They are also the site of important climate solutions, such as huge offshore windfarms and the shipping industry’s transition to cleaner fuels.
At the same time, the oceans themselves present a growing danger to coastal communities and sea life due to sea level rise, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification.
These diverse issues have led to growing calls within the UN climate process for more focus on oceans. During climate negotiations this week in Bonn – known as SB64 – nations and civil society had a chance to air these views during an “ocean and climate change dialogue”.
‘Elevate action’
Oceans first entered UN climate outcomes in 2019, when the final COP25 negotiated text requested a new “dialogue” on “the ocean and climate change to consider how to strengthen mitigation and adaptation action”.
The following years saw this dialogue established as an annual event. However, the political weight of these discussions has been limited.
COP31 is being co-led by Turkey and Australia, but with Pacific islands playing a supporting role. These small islands sometimes self-identify as “large ocean states”, stressing the ocean’s centrality in their societies.
In Bonn, figures from across the presidency threw their weight behind this issue. Chris Bowen, an Australian minister and incoming COP31 “president of negotiations”, told attendees:
“Australia, Turkey and the Pacific see an important opportunity to elevate ocean-based climate action.”
Strategies and finance
The two-day dialogue in Bonn involved a series of panels, statements and breakout groups.
One of the main topics was how oceans are integrated into national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, known as “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs).
Three-quarters of the latest round of NDCs mention oceans, with conservation of “blue carbon” ecosystems the most frequently described action. (Landscapes such as mangroves can both absorb CO2 and protect coastal areas.)
Delegates also discussed alignment with the UN biodiversity process, as well as ocean finance, which currently makes up less than 1% of all climate finance.
(As discussions were taking place in Bonn, country officials also gathered in Mombasa, Kenya for the 11th Our Ocean Conference. Carbon Brief’s associate editor Giuliana Viglione attended the conference and will publish a full summary shortly.)
Developing countries were clear that many of the ocean-related actions in their NDCs would depend on receiving more financial support.
‘Political momentum’
With the backing of the COP31 presidency, delegates were hopeful about where this year’s dialogue could lead.
Charles Hamilton, an advisor for the Bahamas who spoke for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the dialogue, told Carbon Brief that island representatives “are not traveling thousands of miles to just talk and pat ourselves on the back”. He added:
“A dialogue that just remains a dialogue is just more talk – no action.”
Given that, he said “discussions in the dialogue must move into COP decisions and the decisions must be actioned”, noting the importance of finance.
Marina Corrêa, oceans lead at WWF-Brazil, pointed to an upcoming UN climate change Standing Committee on Finance forum as a space to ramp up pressure on ocean finance.
More broadly, she wanted to see the presidencies translate their support into a “leader-level ocean initiative” that could “mainstream” oceans across negotiations.
“We have a really interesting opportunity, in terms of political momentum,” Corrêa told Carbon Brief.
Watch, read, listen
‘HOTTER THAN HELL’: An episode of the BBC’s Rare Earth podcast titled “hotter than hell” considered the issue of extreme heat, with input from experts and “people facing up to the hottest temperatures on the planet”.
NOT BROKEN?: John Drake, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote an essay for Aeon – also re-published as a Guardian “long read” – questioning the framing of ecosystems and climate systems “breaking down”.
ON COURSE: On his Volts podcast, US climate journalist David Roberts interviewed UK climate minister Katie White, quizzing her about whether the UK will “stay the course with its climate plans”.
Coming up
- 20-28 June: London climate action week
- 21 June: Colombia presidential runoff
- 24 June: UK Climate Change Committee progress in reducing emissions 2026 report to parliament
Pick of the jobs
- Mongabay, managing editor – Africa | Salary: Unknown. Location: Global
- Contexte, environment reporter – Brussels | Salary: €45,000-€60,000. Location: Brussels
- Climate 200, communications director | Salary: Unknown. Location: Australia
- Energy Tracker Asia, energy transition correspondent | Salary: $3,000-$4,000 per month. Location: South-east Asia (remote)
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations appeared first on Carbon Brief.
The fiscal future of Musselshell County is uncertain after the coal mine that anchors its economy helped defeat the official working to diversify the area’s revenue streams.
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From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Jenni Doering with author Kevin Trenberth.
El Niño Is Here and Will Have ‘Big Consequences’ for Global Weather
DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
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